This has probably been answered somewhere already, but I couldn't find a thread for it.

I just got a Kindle Fire as a gift and have been playing around with it. Mostly, I'm very pleased with its capabilities, so far. Today, I went to the Amazon MP3 Store(they make it so easy) browsed through the selection and purchased Saul Stokes' 'Outfolding.' Somehow, I missed that one in my collection. Part of the reason for buying it was just to see how easy the process was for adding new content.

While I listened to my new purchase, I started thinking about digital vs. physical purchases, and wondered how Hypnos and its artists make money from iTunes, Amazon and other online vendors. I don't suppose there's a one-size-fits-all sales model involved here, especially when it comes to smaller record labels vying for online shelf space with Mariah and P-Diddy.

I still prefer my music on a physical CD for the most part, and of course, I want to support my favorite ambient record label, but I'm wondering if digital sales help or hurt the artists. I suppose it's inevitable that most releases will go digital, but how does this affect a label like Hypnos?

If I get a chance later in the week - I'll do a blog post from my perspective on this both as a fan of music and a label owner (although not of manufactured CD's...).

I used to buy CD's all the time... I stopped and switched to files a few years ago... my listening habits, and the physical issues with having a huge collection of music prompted my switch. I long ago recycled or threw away the jewel cases - the discs are all in media storage drums. It was just too many. :-)

That said - I love physical releases as works of art - but I don't have room for many of those. Even artists that don't release files - I've approached and gotten the files from them directly and paid them directly. :-)

Even though I'm not a Hypnos artist, I've got some thoughts on this one:

It's good and bad in my experience, good in that I continue to sell my music in download format long after the discs have sold out. It's bad, in that I very much like the 'Art Object' idea, but it's popularity has waned, certainly for 'Independent' artists.

I should point out that the situation is probably more preferable these days from that artist's point of view - anyone can now release pretty much anything they desire and if they sign up to CD Baby (for example), $59 gets their album up on iTunes, Amazon, emusic etc. in a few days. That's pretty amazing I think.

I always tell people we love it when they buy our music however/wherever they buy it, though of course it's slightly more helpful if you buy it closer to the source. Obviously from a completely selfish point of view, we at Hypnos love it when people buy CDs from us. We also think it's great when you buy CDs we've released from the artists themselves.

But if buying a download is the way you want to get your music, we think it's A-OK if you buy it wherever it's available (except for those scam sites in Russia that sell whole albums for a dollar or something). Basically we wouldn't make the music available to buy through an outlet unless we thought it was a good place for people to be able to purchase the music.

It's our hope to someday (soon... soon... ) be able to offer Hypnos downloads through our own store. I was making good progress toward this eventuality until recent schedule-related setbacks, but the idea is still alive.

Regarding AntDude's question on how much does the artist get... it's a really hard one to answer! Every service has to make some bit of money so there's always some type of 'cut' out of the sale to the service(s) involved whether it's an upfront setup fee, a % of sales, a yearly service usage fee, etc... There may also be cuts to labels and the artist may have also paid for mastering/engineering help or for artwork.

Money back can range from say 90% of a sale down to virtually nothing if we're talking cloud radio like Spotify (estimates are something like .0001 per play or something... I just got a bunch of penny payments from Spotify so someone is listening more than once to get all the way up to "penny" status!)

It's never been easier or harder to release music. The landscape of music shifted and it's easier for an indie artist to release something from their bedroom - but it didn't get all that much easier to get successful despite a few fluke myspace / youtube sensations...

I actually manage my digital distribution myself. So, I will probably see a few coins come my way from your purchase so thank you. I've noticed that online sales have significantly dropped in the last year. I think more people are just streaming through Pandora and downloading less.

I'm actually in the process of removing my music from online stores as it's costing too much to maintain. I pay about $50 per album per year and most bring in little more than this. It's just a bad deal unless you're selling a lot of music. As a replacement to this, I have started building a band camp site that I will focus all my efforts on. This will be where all my new music is released. Band camp has the ability to socially activate your music unlike any other site I have seen. In a way, you set it free and allow each album to spread to those who want it.

While on this subject, It's with great pleasure to announce that Zo Pilots is now on Band Camp with a very special surprise! Fissure Docks, An unreleased track originally intended to be on Zo Pilots, turns up on a DAT tape! I pulled this song at the last minute and replaced it with some live material. I always wanted to make it available and thought this would be a good time to this.

I actually manage my digital distribution myself. So, I will probably see a few coins come my way from your purchase so thank you. I've noticed that online sales have significantly dropped in the last year. I think more people are just streaming through Pandora and downloading less.

I'm actually in the process of removing my music from online stores as it's costing too much to maintain. I pay about $50 per album per year and most bring in little more than this. It's just a bad deal unless you're selling a lot of music. As a replacement to this, I have started building a band camp site that I will focus all my efforts on. This will be where all my new music is released. Band camp has the ability to socially activate your music unlike any other site I have seen. In a way, you set it free and allow each album to spread to those who want it.

While on this subject, It's with great pleasure to announce that Zo Pilots is now on Band Camp with a very special surprise! Fissure Docks, An unreleased track originally intended to be on Zo Pilots, turns up on a DAT tape! I pulled this song at the last minute and replaced it with some live material. I always wanted to make it available and thought this would be a good time to this.